August, 2026
SAN FRANCISCO

Bringing together industry-leading speakers in San Francisco to discuss everything AI, SaaS & Venture Capital. Join us for a day of talks, networking, and showcases.

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Eileen Wu is the founder and CEO of Ignite Ventures, empowering VCs, tech leaders, and founders to build winning market advantages by mastering narrative and network. With over a decade at the intersection of venture capital and media, she has a proven track record of pioneering marketing and community-building strategies that amplify influence, strengthen brands, and create powerful network effects. As a former Partner at Andreessen Horowitz, she worked closely with senior leadership to develop innovative playbooks that created a gravitational pull—driving stronger brand engagement, deeper relationships, and sustained growth for the firm. Through Ignite Ventures, Eileen advises, coaches, and speaks at conferences worldwide—sharing hard-won insights and field-tested strategies that help clients unlock growth and accelerate success through powerful narrative-driven and network-led approaches.

Amjad Masad is a Jordanian American entrepreneur and engineer. He founded Replit, a cloud-based AI-powered software development platform, and one of the fastest growing developer communities in the world. Prior to his role at Replit, Amjad worked at Facebook, where he led the JavaScript infrastructure team and contributed to popular open-source developer tools. Additionally, he played a key role as a founding engineer at Codecademy, a prominent online coding school.

David Hefter leads BlackRock’s internal AI strategy and adoption for investments, working across public and private markets. He chairs the AI governance committee and produces an internal weekly AI newsletter. With over two decades experience at BlackRock, David has been driving AI initiatives for the past 5+ years, having studied computer science and AI at Columbia University.

Praveen Akkiraju is a Managing Director at global software investor Insight Partners. He brings a product and operational lens to investing in passionate entrepreneurs who seek to challenge the status quo in the areas of AI & automation, data platforms, DevOps, and infrastructure software. Praveen spent the early part of his career in the trenches, building products and scaling engineering teams to build world-class platforms in highly competitive market segments. As CEO of VCE and Viptela, Inc., Praveen has lived through the experience of navigating startups through product strategy, team building, and the Go-To-Market scaling required to build $100M+ revenue businesses. At Insight, Praveen counts CrewAI, Reco, Workato, and Bardeen among the companies in his portfolio, many of which he supports as a board member.

Rak is a partner at Bain Capital Ventures, where he is an early-stage investor across the cyber-security, AI, and infrastructure sectors. He also spearheads BCV Labs, an incubator for AI founders and researchers. Prior to Bain Capital Ventures, Rak was a product manager at Atlassian, where he founded and led Access, an identity security product with millions of users. Rak is originally from the San Francisco Bay Area and graduated from UCLA with a degree in computer science.

Eric is a Partner at Scale Venture Partners, where he focuses on investments in cloud infrastructure and security. He is a Board member at Scale portfolio companies QA Wolf, Cortex, Datastax, Permit.io, and Upsolver, and a Board observer at AppOmni, BigID, Expel, Honeycomb, and Matillion. Before Scale, Eric led early Google Cloud and Amazon Web Services product teams. At Google, he was a Product Manager in the Data Analytics and Machine Learning group. He led the team that launched Cloud Dataprep and key components of Cloud Dataflow. Previously, Eric built aircraft engines in General Electric’s Operation Management Leadership Program. He’s a contributor to open source projects including Alluxio, where he is on the Project Management Committee, and Apache Beam.

Jon is a Partner at Khosla Ventures passionate about machine learning and its impact on enterprise infrastructure, applications, and developer tools.Prior to KV, Jon built a career in technology as a founder, early employee, and organizational leader across a variety of engineering and product roles. He began his career as an early engineer at Palantir (PLTR), helping scale it from 200 to 1800 employees and founded and sold KoalityCode to Docker, where he created and led Docker’s enterprise division. At Opendoor (OPEN), Jon held roles as both Head of Product for Growth and Head of Engineering for Core Machine Learning helping scale the company to IPO. Most recently, Jon spent time at Facebook leading international engineering organizations in both VR & ML.Jon holds a B.S. in Computer Science with University Honors from Carnegie Mellon University.

VC of Blitzscaling AI Fund, Speaker, Event Host in Silicon Valley

Chris Messina is an investor, product designer, and technologist best known for inventing the hashtag in 2007. A Carnegie Mellon alum, he shaped early‑2000s tech culture—driving Mozilla Firefox to its first 100M downloads, co‑creating BarCamp and coworking, and launched Google Developers and the Google+ Platform. He’s held senior roles at Google, Uber, and Republic (where he led product) before becoming General Partner at the Ride Home AI Fund in 2023—backed by a $6M vehicle for generative‑AI startups. The #1 hunter on Product Hunt, he supports early‑stage founders and continues coaching makers on product launches.

Ted has spent his working career at the intersection of technology and business strategy most recently as an Expert Partner at Bain & Company. In his role at Inflection AI, Ted oversees all business operations including sales, marketing, and customer success. Follow Ted on LinkedIn to read his regularly published newsletter on AI, Infinite Future.

Lari is a Senior Partner in Seattle working with technology companies and digital transformations. Previously Lari has led McKinsey Digital in Northern Asia (2019-2023), Quantum Black in Northern Europe (2016-2019) , McKinsey in Finland (2016-2019), and McKinsey’s Transformation (Recovery & Transformation Services) practice in Northern Europe (2013-2016). Lari’s work is primarily in the software, high tech, and telecom sectors.

“Sara Rona is a managing director of Global Gateway for Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) and is the head of UK/Europe and Middle East North Africa for the bank. Sara manages an expansive global portfolio of tech startups and venture capital firms who are expanding stateside and need cross-border banking services as they scale. Additionally, Sara brings +15 years of global experience and strives to provide value beyond banking by helping clients with their international strategy and being a bridge into the US. Sara joined SVB in 2018 and has been in finance for the last 15 years at a variety of different financial institutions including HSBC, IFC-World Bank and Deutsche Bank. She has an MBA in international business and has spent time living in Dubai, Bangkok, Paris, London, and the US with volunteer work in Afghanistan and Kenya.”

Syed Natif Nawaz, Aurum’s CGO & Managing Partner, brings over 26 years of leadership across hyperscale operations, strategic investments, and cutting-edge technology innovation. As the former Head of Operations at Equinix, he managed 110+ data centers during a critical growth phase, overseeing the company’s revenue expansion from $3.6B to over $5.0B, while executing $3B+ in global M&A transactions including Verizon, Telecity, and Alog—all while maintaining 99.999% SLA compliance globally. He currently serves as Managing Partner & CGO of both Aurum Venture Partners’ $10M Vision Fund, focused on Enterprise, Fintech, and Deep Tech, and Aurum Equity Partners’ $1B+ PE Opportunity Fund, dedicated to data center investments. With a strong technical foundation from Cisco Systems, Brocade, and Alcatel, Syed holds CCIE Emeritus status, 11+ patents, and is a published author on enterprise solutions and data center innovation. A recognized thought leader, he champions sustainable, energy-efficient infrastructure and is shaping Aurum’s AI-forward strategy to meet the rising demand for next-generation data centers supporting 5–10x higher power densities in the rapidly growing $150B+ AI infrastructure market.

Allen brings 20+ years of experience in economic development and venture capital with a focus on emerging markets to his leadership roles at Endeavor, a mission-driven organization focused on supporting high-growth companies in emerging and underserved markets. As the Managing Partner of Endeavor Catalyst, Allen leads Endeavor’s innovative co-investment fund that has been recognized as one of the most active global venture investors in markets like Latin America and the Middle East. Since launching in 2012, Endeavor Catalyst has raised over $500M+ across four funds and made 300+ investments in 30+ different countries, including more than 50 companies now valued at $1B+. Allen is a frequent guest lecturer at the Stanford Graduate School of Business and serves on the boards of several entrepreneurship and venture capital-focused organizations, including Kauffman Fellows (Class 16), Alter Global, STV (Saudi Arabia) and Scale-Up Ventures (Brazil). A graduate of Princeton University, he lives with his wife and two children in Northern California.

SC Moatti is the Founding Managing Partner of Mighty Capital, a Silicon Valley venture firm that capitalizes on the growing importance of product managers in enterprise success. She earned her reputation as a “genius at making products people love” during the cloud/mobile era, when she built products that billions of people use at Siebel Systems and Meta, won industry awards and nominations from the Wall Street Journal and the Emmys, and wrote an award-winning bestseller on what makes a great product. As a venture capitalist honored on the Kauffman Top 30 Index, she invested in pioneering companies like Amplitude (NASDAQ: AMPL), Groq, and Canela. SC earned a master’s in electrical engineering and a Stanford MBA, and is a Kauffman Fellow and member of YPO.

Brian Sparkes is the CEO of Silicon Valley Venture LLC, and Head of Strategic Ventures at STAK Ventures. A “Community-First” entrepreneur and expert in Strategic GTM Communication, Brian advises over 1,400 startups and executives annually. He collaborates with top organizations—including Startup Grind, Plug and Play, and Founder Institute—to accelerate traction and investment. As Chapter Director of Startup Grind Oakland and host of the popular podcast, Silicon Valley Impact. Brian connects global innovators with Silicon Valley’s startup engine. A second-generation entrepreneur born in the Bay Area, he’s known as a “super connector” with deep roots in the venture ecosystem. Formerly Head of Communication for Bay Angels and a guest lecturer at Stanford Law School, Brian helps founders turn clarity into capital through compelling storytelling and strategic influence.

Valentin (Val) Bercovici is an AI industry leader, currently serving as Chief AI Officer at WEKA. With an extensive career in technology, Val was previously the Chief Technology Officer at NetApp/SolidFire, where he drove innovation in cloud storage and data management solutions. As a cloud pioneer, Val served on the original Kubernetes Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF) Governing Board in the Linux Foundation, helping shape the direction of container orchestration on a global scale. As Chair of the Storage Networking Industry Association’s Cloud Storage Initiative (CSI), Val coordinated the rollout of the international S3 standard CDMI (ISO 17826). As Co-chair of SNIA’s Solid State Storage Initiative (SSSI), Val helped establish the first NAND Flash SSD / NVMe storage standards. In the Windows/VMware ecosystem, Val co-authored the Windows Shadowcopy snapshot specification.

Ibrahim AlSuwaidi is a Partner at early-stage venture capital firm DCM. At DCM, Ibrahim focuses on investments in fintech and enterprise SaaS and is keen on meeting and partnering with ambitious founders solving some of the world’s hardest problems. Ibrahim holds an M.B.A. from Stanford’s Graduate School of Business where he was a Siebel Scholar and Arjay Miller Scholar. He also holds an M.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Stanford. With roots in both the UAE and Taiwan, Ibrahim is fluent in both Arabic and Mandarin Chinese.

Vasanth Mohan serves as Director of Technical Product Marketing and Developer Relations at SambaNova. In previous roles, he has worked with thousands of developers to empower them to build the best scalable solutions across many emerging technologies, including VR/AR, Edge Computing, and AI. At SambaNova, he is now focused on enabling developers and enterprises to unlock the value of Agentic AI with Fast Inference on SambaCloud to solve today’s business challenges quickly and efficiently.

Ashish is a General Partner at Chamaeleon, an early-stage venture fund backing transformative tech startups. With 20+ years across investing, entrepreneurship, and operating roles globally, he has led and backed category-defining companies including Ziva Dynamics (acquired by Unity). His edge lies in bridging deep tech with capital to help bold founders shape the future of their industries.He previously invested at Grishin Robotics and held leadership roles in M&A and strategy at Opera Software, Engineering at Yahoo!, and Marketing at Dell. A Kauffman Fellow (Class 24), Ashish served on the board of NextGen Partners and is part of 256 Network. He advises startups, VC funds, and family offices on AI, product strategy, and global scale. Ashish holds an MBA from Kellogg and LBS, a MEM in design thinking from Northwestern, and a BE in Information Science from RVCE. His edge lies in bridging deep tech with capital to help bold founders shape the future of their industries.

Founder of f02 labs, AI Strategist, Startup Advisor, DevRel. Former Director of AI @ Microsoft and Chief Data Scientist @ IBM

Bill leads IgniteGTM with deep expertise across AI infrastructure, cloud computing, and data center strategy. An experienced operator in Silicon Valley’s enterprise and deep-tech ecosystem, he specializes in building go-to-market frameworks that align technical innovation with commercial growth. Bill is a trusted advisor to leadership teams navigating scale, transformation, and new market entry, bringing clarity, precision, and a repeatable path to traction.

An award-winning speaker, event producer, and radio show host, Ash has been honored by the White House with the EMPACT 100 for his contributions to entrepreneurship. His popular LinkedIn Learning course, How to Stand Out with Your Expertise, has helped over 25,000 professionals and leaders. Currently, he serves as the Head of Events and Community for The AI Collective, the world’s largest AI movement boasting 70,000+ members across 25+ global chapters.

Mariane is a tech executive with over a decade of experience in building high-performing engineering teams. She is currently the Managing Partner at Founders Bay, where she connects 80,000 founders and VCs with events, virtual workshops, and fundraising resources.

Managing Director

Barkley Dai is the Product Lead at Luma AI on data and model capabilities. He works on improving datasets, training processes, and evaluation methods for cutting-edge visual and video models, collaborating closely with research and engineering to translate model breakthroughs into reliable, creative tools. Before Luma, Barkley was an AI Product Manager at TikTok, where he developed and launched features for TikTok Effects, enabling millions of users to create and share interactive AR videos. His work centers on building robust pipelines and model systems that bridge advanced AI research with everyday creative expression, making powerful visual tools accessible to everyone.

Previously worked at NASA and at xAI training LLMs and building robotics.

Professor of Computer Science and Engineering

Co-founder, Chairman, and Head of Research

Steven is an entrepreneur and startup strategist focused on AI enabled businesses. He is considered a a “producer” in many realms, including startups, tech conferences & summits, hackathons, accelerators, media and marketing.

Brady Forrest is the founder of Ignite Talks, a global public speaking platform that’s helped tens of thousands share their ideas in precisely five minutes. Under his leadership, Ignite has partnered with TED, SXSW, and Microsoft. Beyond Ignite, Brady is a Kauffman Fellow, where he runs the Creator SIG, and a venture investor, having backed 75+ startups through Highway1 and GenLab Studio.

Akash Saraf is a multi-time tech entrepreneur having built companies in the space of cloud computing, backup/DR, remote server monitoring and now AI agents. He is an author of 3 books on computer programming.

Tai Hsia is CFO at LUUM, a revolutionary Beauty Experience Automation company that uses robotics and physical AI to work hand-in-hand with estheticians and cosmetologists to provide best-in-class beauty services more safely, quickly, and consistently. Tai also currently serves on the board of directors of Blackdot, the world’s first robotic tattooing device using physical AI to offer unmatched self-expression and allowing artists to share and get compensated for their works of art, and DARI Motion, the world’s only FDA cleared markerless AI-powered motion analysis solution focused on health, wellness, and performance. Tai is also an active angel investor focused on pre-seed, seed, and Series A startups. Previously, Tai was COO at Wynd Technologies, COO at MOCAP Analytics, Co-Founder & CEO of mConnected, and a corporate partner at Kirkland & Ellis.

Nima is the co-founder and CEO of Assemble Labs building an Al copilot for electrical engineers. A mechanical and aerospace engineer by training, Nima has built his career across startups and large tech companies like Google, Amazon, and Facebook, specializing in early-stage technology development. Most recently, he’s focused on pioneering technologies that enable the next generation of hardware devices. He completed his studies in engineering at Stanford and USC in California, and lives in the Bay Area.

Founder and CEO of Resilience AI, a pioneering health care startup and & The Why Man. With 25 years of experience, I am a techno-business engineering and product leader adept at building Google-scale distributed systems in fintech and healthtech, focusing on AI and Web3 technologies. I’ve won eight prestigious hackathons related to AI and Web3, both within Google and at renowned hack houses in Silicon Valley. I hold an executive MBA and have educated over 1,500 Fortune 500 executives on the applications of AI and blockchain over the past six years at UC Berkeley. A passionate public speaker, influencer, and blogger at TheWhyMan.Blog, I advocate for #ResponsibleAI and its transformative potential in business.

Namrata is a seasoned technology executive and entrepreneur with over 20 years of experience leading engineering and product teams at companies like Meta, Coinbase, PayPal, Microsoft, and high-growth startups. She is currently SVP of Engineering at Xero and the founder of an AI-native company building intelligent financial tools for businesses. Namrata is passionate about applying AI to solve real-world problems and has recently focused on building LLM-powered agents for enterprise workflows. Namrata brings a unique blend of hands-on innovation, operational excellence, and strategic vision.

David Munir Nabti designs and leads transformative leadership, entrepreneurship, intrapreneurship, and organizational development programs that help individuals and teams thrive. As co-founder & CEO of Bloom.pm, he helps corporates, startups, and social enterprises grow through collaborative, impact-driven learning experiences. Bloom’s hybrid programs combine human-centered learning with digital infrastructure (bloom.pm/platform) to scale meaningful change. With 20+ years of experience, including with the UN, Google, Stanford, and UC Berkeley, David blends systems thinking, regenerative innovation, and practical tools to unlock potential at every level. He also spearheads impact initiatives including the upcoming Regenerative Doughnut Economy Accelerator for the Bay Area (bloom.pm/doughnut), inviting partners from philanthropy and business to co-create a flourishing future. Connect with David on X/LinkedIn/Insta @dmnabti, and Bloom @bloomdotpm, @bloomemea, or partner@bloom.pm.